Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Chilcot

It would probably take a while to read the Chilcot Report, and no doubt in my
mind that very few will. The preference, I suspect, will be to glance at the
précis provided through media by those anxious to demonstrate one or other of
several points which will be examined minutely and then extrapolated upon for
political advantage. And one has to wonder, why such cynicism. The answer has to
do with yearning for a savior, someone to trust by finding someone to blame, and
the Chilcot Report is several million words long. I understand it includes the
round number of "at least 150,000" Iraqi casualties, a few of them soldiers.

In the matter of blame, there will be those who will claim that political will
foundered and withdrawal was premature. And there will be those who will claim
it should never have been started in the first place. At the time, in 2003, the
latter opinion was a minority opinion. Those who held it were deemed
unpatriotic, wooly livered and weak minded, probably socialist with no moral
fiber. Saddam Hussein was an evil, guilty of something, and there was a whole
thing accompanied by song and dance, and "OH Goody" let's cleanse ourselves of
alternatives through a war that'll make us famous. There's no shame in the
analysis of an error, but "shame on him who thinks evil of it." Not Socrates' dying words, a
motto of the Norman Kings.